Revelation 13

This is my discussion of Revelation 13 from my book Kingdom Come: Understanding the Book of Revelation, published in 2012 by Unity Books. 

 

So the battle that was first waged in heaven—in consciousness—is now being fought in the tangible world. This allows the Revelation to speak to its first readers about the challenges and conflicts of the day—coded, of course, so that only those who understood the symbolism would get the full message. It’s because of the necessity of communicating in code that Chapter 13 has become so misunderstood and feared through the years.

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed.

The imagery in Chapter 13 draws heavily from the prophecies recorded in the Book of Daniel. (See especially Chapter Seven.) The earlier prophet describes four beasts, and at that time, 600 years prior to the Revelation, they were meant to represent the empires of Babylonia, Persia, the Medes, and the Greeks—all of which were competing for temporal power. In the Revelation to John, the four beasts are combined into one beast with qualities of all four. This mega-beast from the sea is the Roman Empire, which has, indeed, absorbed the lands and peoples of all four earlier kingdoms. The crowned heads are the various emperors with “blasphemous names” because they insisted on being worshipped as gods. 

Today I think we can see the beast from the sea as representing the false belief system under which we live in this illusion of duality, until the birth of Christ Consciousness allows us to see the beast as false. Interestingly, this beast has no power of its own; it receives all the power it has from the dragon—the negative, fear-based energy that insists on our separation from God.

In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’

Certainly the entire known world at the time of the Revelation lived in thrall to the Roman Empire. Like it or hate it, the empire was simply a reality to be accepted. ‘You can’t fight City Hall.’ In accepting the beast, however, the people were in effect ‘worshipping the dragon’ by believing without question in the message of separation and powerlessness that allowed the beast to rule.

Today we can see this beast, not just as whatever government we may have over us, but as the entire, elaborate system of rules and regulations that encourage us to put our faith in this human experience instead of in our spiritual truth. Through the years this beast has expanded its reach, if not its power. All of the scientific discoveries and measurements of past centuries have become a part of the mindset that ‘knows what it knows’ and believes only what is tangible and provable in the domain of senses and intellect in which our belief is centered.

The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.

Again, we understand the qualities attributed here to the symbolic Roman Empire to describe with great accuracy our struggle today with the dictates of the world. For a measurable period of time—the symbolic 42 months again—the beast will pretty much run things. Its underlying purpose is to keep us locked in a sense of powerlessness, helpless victims of ‘the way things are.’ To that end, it will attack any spiritual belief that threatens its control, in every “tribe and people and language and nation.” 

The “book of life” has already been mentioned as the living, eternal record of those souls who are awake to their true spiritual identity. Because they know themselves to be eternal beings, even the illusion of death cannot touch or frighten them.

 Let anyone who has an ear listen:

If you are to be taken captive,

   into captivity you go;

if you kill with the sword,

   with the sword you must be killed.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

In this helpful aside, the Revelation offers us a bit of practical advice on applying spiritual principle to the challenges of this beast. It involves simply knowing who we truly are, and how the creative power of God expresses through us. The essential truth is that we will experience according to our beliefs. If we are taken captive, it will be because we have chosen to believe in the possibility of captivity. As Job exclaims, “That which I greatly fear has come upon me!” (Job 3:25). Fear is an especially insidious form of creative empowerment; by choosing to fear something or someone, we are granting it a power over us—and that power we fear will manifest in our lives.

And then comes another reminder of ‘How It Works’ when it comes to making right choices. “If you kill with the sword, with the sword you must be killed.” This is not new information, of course. Note this powerful response when the prophet Jeremiah asks the Lord where his people are to go: “Thus says the Lord: Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity” (Jeremiah 15:2). And at the time of Jesus’ arrest, when a follower draws his sword to defend him by attacking a servant of the High Priest, Jesus lovingly issues the same warning: “Put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).

The message is clear. By choosing to do battle with our perceived enemies, we are giving them a measure of our own power. It’s by rising above the conflict, above the dimension of anger or fear, that we know ourselves to be an infinite power that cannot be threatened or attacked.

Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all; and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived; and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

Oh, geez! Another beast already! Can’t we dispense with the beast from the sea first, before we turn to the beast from the land? Well, it seems logical; but logic rarely has much to do with spiritual progress. The two beasts are so interconnected—both with each other and with the dragon that empowers them both—that we need to deal with them both.

If the beast from the sea represents the illusions of duality presented as real, then what is left for the beast from the land? Well, there’s no kind and gentle way to say this. The beast from the land—aka the false prophet—represents those religious beliefs that try to control us with teachings of sin, punishment, and general unworthiness. The first beast claims total knowledge of how our human lives are meant to express. This second beast extends that false self-assurance to our relationship with God. This is the beast that loves to repeat the stories of the two falls from grace we discussed earlier. It presents itself as the Lamb (of God) but speaks with the voice of the dragon. 

What’s interesting here, I think, is the clear indication that, while this second beast pretends to have a direct connection to God, it is in fact in constant support of the first beast.  It “deceives those who dwell on earth” with impressive, pseudo-religious signs and wonders. And yet its true purpose is to reinforce the sense of weakness and separation that is the essence of the first beast’s interpretation of our human condition. 

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

“This calls for wisdom” indeed—and wisdom has been in short supply when it comes to understanding this brief passage. Throughout the 20 centuries between us and the Revelation, the number 666 has been treated with superstitious fear. Buildings can’t use it as a street number, for example, because people refuse to live at that address. It’s “the number of the beast,” which is interpreted as meaning it’s the sign of Satan.

And all of this anxiety about a passage that immediately follows a forceful reminder that it’s our own fear-based faith in negative energy that gives it power in our lives! It’s no wonder there are stories about powerful negative consequences associated with 666. It’s our belief that negative consequences will happen that brings them into being.

The Christian-believing Jews to whom the Revelation was first directed were very skilled at numerology—finding meaning, patterns, and hidden codes in the use of certain numerals. The many books of scripture, from beginning to end, are rife with numerological significance. The numbers seven, 12, and 40, in particular were understood to have great spiritual significance.

These early readers would have immediately understood that 666 is a numerical expression equivalent to ‘Nero Caesar.’ We have already mentioned the superstitious belief, common at the time, that the hated Nero had not really died. Like Elvis, he was rumored to have faked his death to escape the consequences of his insane choices. It was believed that he was somewhere to the east of the Empire, amassing a large army that would one day conquer the forces of Rome and restore the age of barbarism for which Nero was known. It’s the fear that Nero had secret followers, known only to each other, working to prepare the way for his army’s imminent arrival, that generates the coded warning that ends Chapter 13.

 

Thoughts on Chapter 13

It’s unfortunate that Chapter 13 has become notorious for all the wrong reasons. The two beasts, the great dragon, the secret signs and signals, the “number of the beast”—it’s amazing that Hollywood hasn’t converted the drama into an effects-laden 3D spectacular. It’s all vivid and entertaining—but it’s not the affirmation of duality and conflict that so many insist on finding. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

Except for a few helpful interjections from a different perspective, this entire chapter is concerned with the illusion of duality and separation that the dragon of fear and ignorance manufactures in an attempt to maintain its powerful hold on our unawakened minds. The Presence of God, the newly born Christ Consciousness—these are nowhere to be found. Spiritual truth does not engage in a fight to the finish with the dark shadow forces of fear. Why should the truth treat lies as equals, worthy of being challenged? 

We’ve already been told in spiritual consciousness that the dragon can only hold sway for a brief period of time. Now that we are awake to our true Christ nature, we can no longer believe in the lies of the two beasts—both empowered by the dragon of negativity.  Why, then, describe them at all? Why not just ignore them, and wait for their dramas to play themselves out? 

The answer, I think, lies in the fact that we are not engaged in this process—this Hero’s Journey—just for ourselves alone. We may now be relatively immune to the combined powers of the two beasts, but many others are still in their sway. The more aware and observant we are able to be, the more we may be able to recognize the negative energy flow and help to lovingly dissolve it. None of us will be unadulterated expressions of pure spirit as long as we continue to express our spirit selves within the apparent limitations of a human experience. But we can accomplish a great deal by staying conscious, and by fearlessly sharing our love and awareness at every opportunity.

This is the essence of prayer. Effective prayer requires that we recognize the effects of the two beasts expressing as negative energy—in our own lives or in the lives of others. We don’t fight that energy; we don’t even judge it. We simply affirm the truth, and align our faith with that truth, and allow the energy of the divine to dissolve the effects of the illusion.

This is also the essence of the Warrior archetype that represents our next role as the Hero’s Journey continues to unfold. It’s not that we are to take up swords and go to war against the perceived power of the beasts. “Resist not evil,” Jesus taught (Matthew 5:39), and as always he meant what he said. The simple exercise of faith required to believe that there is something of the beasts that needs to be resisted strengthens the beasts’ power, and creates a stronger beast experience for ourselves, and those for whom we pray. There is a world of difference between praying that an illness goes away, and praying that one’s innate perfect health be made manifest. The first increases the reality of the illness by believing that it exists and needs to be resisted. The second sees past the illusion of illness without giving the illusion the empowerment of our fearful faith, and instead brings forward into expression the spiritual truth that does not need to fight against illusions.

And so we are to continue observing the effects of the beasts in the world around us—not fearfully, and not judgmentally, but with an affirmative awareness that nothing in the illusion can threaten our innate spiritual power. We don’t deny the effects of the beasts of human ignorance and the misuse of power. We see clearly the damage they cause in our own lives, and in the world we share. We embrace every opportunity to replace the ignorance with spiritual truth, and the misuse of power with unconditional love. We firmly resist every urging to allow the beasts any more power than they already have been given. We decrease that power at every opportunity. 

We are no longer victims, nor are we warriors of fear-based resistance and angry attack. We are the Warrior, secure in the power of God, standing firm in our innate Oneness with each other and with the divine. We appreciate the beasts for the opportunities they offer to replace ignorance with truth, and fear with love. We are not discouraged by appearances; we are centered in faith. And we move on.